


Ten Year Reunion

by Jain



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Podfic Available, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-20 00:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17612255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/pseuds/Jain
Summary: Once upon a time, Georgie had indulged in a small fantasy of Jon coming back into her life, humbled and apologetic. This situation bore a superficial resemblance to that fantasy, but with all of the fun stripped out of it.





	Ten Year Reunion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shoulder_Devil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shoulder_Devil/gifts).



Someone was knocking on the door, and Georgie dashed down the stairs to answer it. A knock usually meant that her visitor had given up on the doorbell in the belief that it was broken. (Her doorbell worked fine, she just couldn't hear it inside her soundproofed studio. It was lucky that she'd emerged for a cup of tea at exactly the right time.)

When she threw the door open, though, it wasn't to find the expected uniformed delivery man or the slightly less expected friend with a free hour to kill. The middle-aged man wearing an almost aggressively boring suit was a stranger--and then he turned his attention from the road to Georgie, and she realized it wasn't a stranger and he wasn't middle-aged. It was _Jon_.

"Georgie," he said with an unpersuasive attempt at a smile.

It wasn't just his hair that was graying and making him look prematurely aged. His skin, too, was pale to the point of grayness, and his voice sounded oddly distant. A decade ago, she might've said he looked like death.

He didn't look like death, but he did look as though something were terribly wrong.

"I'm sorry to...descend on you like this with no warning," he continued, "but I really need a place to stay--just for a little while!--and I was hoping that even though we parted on--" As he spoke, he kept glancing behind himself, until Georgie finally snapped.

She didn't know what was going on, or how Jon had gotten her address, but watching him stammer through apologies while worried nearly out of his mind was _not_ on her agenda for the day. "I was about to make a cup of tea," she interrupted. "Want one?"

Jon blinked. "I...yes. Thank you."

He waited in the hallway while she locked the door--including the deadbolt, which she usually only bothered with at night--and then followed her docilely to the kitchen where he collapsed into a chair, his previous frantic flow of words stemmed for the moment.

She almost asked him if he still took his tea the same way, then reconsidered and stirred some sugar into his cup along with the milk. He wasn't looking over his shoulder every few seconds any more, but even so he looked far too shocky for her comfort.

He grimaced slightly at the first sip but didn't complain. They drank their tea in silence, and Georgie watched him while trying not to look as though she were watching him. Once upon a time, she'd indulged in a small fantasy of Jon coming back into her life, humbled and apologetic. This situation bore a superficial resemblance to that fantasy, but with all of the fun stripped out of it. She debated for a minute whether Jon would accept a hug from her. In the end, she decided not to risk it.

Instead, she unearthed some Lotus biscuits she'd hidden from herself at the back of the cupboard, and Jon ate three of them. Georgie heroically restricted herself to three, as well.

"So, you need a place to stay?" she asked when Jon had finished his tea and had regained enough of his color to look merely pale rather than ghastly.

"Yes. I know it's an imposition, but there's no one else I can ask, and--" His eyes widened as he belatedly realized how that must sound. "That is to say, it's been a long time since we...er...lost touch, and I don't expect you to feel any obligation to help me. Though I'd greatly appreciate it if you would, anyway."

Georgie gave him a wry smile, feeling an irrepressible welling of fondness for him. Apparently he wasn't any smoother now than he'd been at uni. "It's all right, Jon. It's not exactly a shock to hear that your ex who you haven't spoken to in a decade might not be the number one person on your contact list." The image of Jon scanning her street for unseen dangers intruded into her mind. "Though I would like to know _why_ you need to stay here."

Jon froze for a long moment, and then said, "A...workplace dispute?"

"A workplace dispute," Georgie repeated blankly.

"That's right."

It was an absurd reason on the face of it, but she also thought it must somehow be true. Jon had always been a shockingly bad liar. Though what sort of workplace dispute could leave him in fear of being followed, she had no idea. If Jon weren't...well, _Jon,_ she might suspect him of embezzlement or something. But given that he _was_ Jon, the very idea was laughable.

"This isn't anything that could cause trouble for me, is it?" she asked, studying him carefully.

"No," he said with reassuring firmness. Then, somewhat less reassuringly, he added, "I won't let it."

Still no hint towards what "it" was, she noted. He was telling the truth, though...or at any rate what he believed to be the truth. And, really, how bad could whatever Jon was involved in be? Not to mention that he was obviously desperate, and she hated to turn him away.

(Yes, she realized that those last two thoughts weren't entirely compatible. Jon had tended to the overdramatic--at least when she'd last known him--but not to paranoia. The smart thing to do would be to send him on his way, maybe with some money for a hotel room so it didn't feel quite so much like abandoning him. But there were some friends who just burrowed their way into your heart, and Jon happened to be one of hers. And the fact that he had appeared on her doorstep out of the blue strongly suggested that _she_ was one of _his_ , which was surprising yet gratifying. Doing the smart thing seemed a lot less appealing in the face of that.)

"Well, I have the space and don't mind the company. There's just one last important question."

Jon looked briefly alarmed, until she continued, "How do you feel about cats?"

"Um. Generally positive, unless they wee in my shoes."

She laughed. "I assume you're speaking from experience?"

"How did you ever guess?" he asked dryly.

"Well, the Admiral's never wee'd in a shoe yet, so you're probably safe."

The expression on his face went funny at her words--first sardonic and then desperately hopeful. Obviously he was reading a deeper meaning in them than she'd intended. It hurt to look at, and Georgie busied herself with tidying away teacups and biscuits (after eating just one more).

"You look exhausted," she said matter-of-factly. Jon tended to respond well to the unvarnished truth. Except for the times he responded to it terribly.

This was obviously one of the former instances; his mouth twitched in a rueful smile. "I know. It's been a rough year."

"I'll show you the guest room so you can take a nap. Unless you want to fetch some of your things first?"

"I can't," he said, some of the desperate edge returning to his voice.

Georgie shook her head. "I don't understand. Why would a workplace dispute prevent you from getting your stuff? Even if you can't make rent anymore, your landlord can't just keep your personal belongings. Or were you living in your office?"

"Not usually," he said, somewhat weakly.

Georgie blinked. She'd meant that last question as a joke. She knew the Magnus Institute was weird--she'd heard enough stories about it over the years from various friends in the business--but apparently it was even weirder than she'd realized.

Jon didn't elaborate on his unsatisfactory answer, and Georgie thought about pressing him further. She'd already made the decision to help him, though, and didn't really want to change her mind. Getting a proper explanation could wait until after he'd had a chance to rest and hopefully looked a bit less haunted.

"All right. I have a spare T-shirt you can borrow. I'm afraid you're on your own for the rest of your clothes, though."

"That's fine. Thank you, Georgie," he said with surprising sincerity. Not that Jon couldn't be polite when he tried, but in her experience, he'd never been so...heartfelt about it.

"It's no trouble." On impulse, she added, "You just need to meet the Admiral first and make sure he doesn't have designs on your shoes. No point skipping the formalities."

Jon gave her a familiar half-smile: he didn't know what she was on about and didn't like to admit it. Since what Georgie was on about was providing Jon with a socially acceptable cuddle object for a grown man, she ignored the uncertain expression, said, "Just wait here," and went into the living room. As expected, the Admiral was draped over the radiator, though he was willing enough to be picked up.

She carried him to the kitchen and made a quick introduction. "Jon? The Admiral. Admiral? Jon. He's going to be staying with us for a while, on the condition that you behave yourself." She turned back to Jon. "Do you want to try holding him? He doesn't bite...or claw, or even move most of the time, honestly."

"All right," Jon said, a little hesitantly. He took the Admiral with steady hands, though, and settled him on his lap, where he began stroking him from head to rump with slow, soothing strokes. The Admiral blinked up at him several times and then closed his eyes in contentment. A moment later, he started purring.

"He must like you," Georgie said. "Usually he's too lazy to purr."

Jon smiled, still looking down at the cat on his lap. "So you're saying my shoes are probably safe?"

"Seems so. Especially if you only take them off upstairs. The Admiral doesn't like going into the bedrooms this time of year--they're a little chilly for his taste. You can usually find him in the living room, either lying on top of the radiator or in the middle of the biggest patch of sunlight."

"Wise cat," Jon said. His own eyes were drooping now, which was a vast improvement over how he'd looked before: like someone at the end of a string of all-nighters, exhausted but almost too nervy to sleep. It seemed Jon realized it, too. Just as she began to think that he might fall asleep right there at her kitchen table, he set the Admiral gently on the floor and pushed himself to his feet. "Sorry, I'm this close to dropping off. You said there was a guest room?"

"Yeah. Follow me."

She pointed out the bathroom on the way--with a mental note to set out a flannel and towel for him--and left him in the guest room while she grabbed a T-shirt from her own room.

"This is a nice house," Jon said when she rejoined him. "Your show is doing well, then?"

"It is," she said, a little surprised that he even knew about her work. Maybe Melanie had told him. Or maybe he'd kept unthinking track of her through the years, just as she'd done for him. It was easy enough to do; the ghost hunting world was a small one, though the Magnus Institute was definitely one of its more obscure corners. "I'll have to play you an episode sometime."

"I already listen to it," Jon said, his voice muffled as he leaned over to unlace his shoes, and interrupted by a giant yawn midway through the sentence.

Georgie grinned to herself, even as she murmured soothing things about leaving him to his rest and just asking if he needed anything. She closed the door quietly, feeling cheerier than she had at any point since finding Jon on her doorstep. The Jon she'd known at uni might have _listened_ to a show titled "What the Ghost," but he definitely wouldn't have admitted it in such a casual tone. He'd grown up since then. No doubt they both had. And it suddenly felt like an unexpectedly precious gift that they could reconnect at this moment in their lives, no matter the circumstances that had led to it.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Ten Year Reunion](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079664) by [GoLBPodfics (GodOfLaundryBaskets)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodOfLaundryBaskets/pseuds/GoLBPodfics)




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